


Resolve

by PerpetuaTheBrave (Teanjel)



Series: Reflections [1]
Category: Hollow Knight (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, broken vessel is mentioned, how does one tag here?, i haven't even finished this game, just 400 words of the knight wondering what he's doing i guess, myla alluded to, the knight doesn't know any more than the player, this was just me writing down theories and it turned into this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-17
Updated: 2018-09-17
Packaged: 2019-07-13 09:53:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16015484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Teanjel/pseuds/PerpetuaTheBrave
Summary: Facing Hornet a second time, the knight is full of questions about himself and his place in Hallownest.





	Resolve

 

This fight is different.

So familiar. Same voice, same words, same deadly needle, but so completely different.

She's serious this time. I heard it in her challenge. See it in her speed.

I'm no longer a confused wanderer, stumbling into Greenpath following the cryptic words of an overgrown monument. I've crossed to the corners of this kingdom, recklessly challenged the Mantis tribe and won their respect. I've woken bound in the darkest corner of Deepnest and fought my way back to the light. I've walked through dreams. I’ve changed.

But Hornet wasn’t trying her hardest before. A quick bow, a flourish of needle and string, and she strikes, shows me how fast she could always dance. I dance now, too, skip up the walls and float in the air on wings of light, dash beneath her sudden dives. And she matches my speed. She stitches thorns into the air. Blocks me expertly with her narrow needle. She never blocked me before.

Someone else did.

That – _thing_ – in the dark, deep beyond the foundations of the city. That infected thing, with a face like mine. Of all the strange things to find in the depths, I never expected one so terribly familiar. It reminded me of her, though I wasn't sure. It had been so long. An enemy not dangerous by size or strength, but clever. Nimble. An equal. Like her. Like Hornet. And like me.

Are we the same, we who dash and float and wait for an opening with our tiny weapon? What am I? Hornet calls me ghost. Do I remind her of someone lost? Who was this broken knight, before? The one whose dance is broken by the clumsy haste of infection, reduced to spitting that awful orange?

That color.

The one spilling out of the dark temple.

Soaking and bubbling from the very stones of the Crossroads.

In the eyes of my friend.

She...

She still sings, in her dreaming.

Do they all dream of dead lives? All of them, pacing their old footprints with infected eyes, never speaking? Is there an answer to this?

Is this my doing? My fault, the seal-breaker?

Who is the statue in the center of the city?

 

Hornet dreams, too.

_"Could this one succeed?"_

Were there others before me?

_"From where does it draw this strength?"_

I do not know. I do not remember where I came from. We are far from green paths and peaceful waters, sliding through ashes and fighting the wind on the edge of an empty kingdom. This battle is different. I fight for an answer.

And maybe, hope.

**Author's Note:**

> Well, this took way longer to edit than I thought it would, and it looks so tiny uploaded! It's a start, I guess. This game is so inspiring. I might come back with more. Maybe play a bit farther first.


End file.
